A popular approach for aspiring entrepreneurs these days seems to be to corner anyone who will listen, with a pitch on their current “million dollar idea.” The initial monologue usually ends with the question “How much money do you think this is worth?” MORE

Visit a startup’s website, and you’ll eventually drift towards a few standard links, from About to Team to Contact. But among those options, appearing on almost every site, is one link that simply doesn’t belong with the rest: “Blog.” MORE

With all the news about hundred million dollar rounds and billion dollar valuations, it can be hard not to look at the world of entrepreneurship and angel investing as a thrilling ride that only has one stop: success. MORE

Digital marketing has gone under some major makeovers over the last few years. From something that was associated only with eCommerce platforms to becoming an increasingly important medium for creating a brand name across industries. MORE

Last year in my What Just Happened post, I said: the social media phase of the Internet ended. I think we can go further than that now and say that sometime in the past year or two the consumer internet/social/mobile gold rush ended. MORE

Does it feel like everyone is working very hard, all the time, and yet not accomplishing as much as everyone would like? Maybe this is why. Suppose a web server is running at 50% of its full capacity. MORE

Ellie Mirman was the first marketer hired by the CMO of HubSpot, the Boston-based marketing software startup that IPOed in 2014. Below, she shares lessons learned from the earliest days of marketing the company and how this has translated to her second startup role as VP of Marketing at Toast. MORE

note: In 2013, Rob Go published a flowchart articulating his VC decision making process. Below, we’ve updated that graphic with new information in order to stay current and provide more context and transparency around each node. MORE

I am always surprised when critics complain that the Lean Startup’s Build, Measure, Learn approach is nothing more than “throwing incomplete products out of the building to see if they work.”. Unfortunately the Build, Measure, Learn diagram is the cause of that confusion. MORE

This is one of my favorite lines to use to explain the business life I live. When asked what it’s like to be a partner in a VC firm, be on a bunch of boards, and have a continuous stream of random interaction come my way, I like to level set my reality. It’s simple. MORE

Last week I saw this tweet from Dan Primack who covers the VC sector for Fortune: At VC breakfast (90 attendees), I asked how many would invest in Bitcoin startup (not general blockchain). Zero hands. FortuneTech. — Dan Primack (@danprimack) July 14, 2015. MORE

Startups focus on speed since they are burning cash every day as they search for product/market fit. But over time code/hardware written/built to validate hypotheses and find early customers can become unwieldy, difficult to maintain and incapable of scaling. MORE

Creating a brand presence on all major social platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+ and LinkedIn has become a must for businesses irrespective of their size. But does it all end at fancy social profiles or does social media marketing run deeper? I say, the latter. MORE

Note: This post also published at NextView’s blog for seed stage companies The View From Seed. The startup ecosystem is often full of hyperbole, which is perfectly understandable when you think about it. MORE

At some point in your startup’s existence you’ll need to focus a lot of attention on your product’s onboarding experience. Don’t worry about this right away. At the start just make sure people can sign up and go get some early adopters by any means necessary. MORE

Round 10 of the Framework Benchmarks project is now available! It has been a little less than a year since the previous round and in that time, approximately 133 contributors have made 2,835 git commits. MORE

For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. This is the mysterious and dreaded due diligence process, which can kill the whole deal. MORE

The 2014 numbers for the VC category are out and it was a huge year, almost $50bn in total VC funding. ‘ But look at the numbers for “deals” vs the numbers for “dollars” In 2014, there were 4,356 deals vs 4,193 deals in 2013, an increase of 3.8% year over year. MORE

You might be punishing your best player's performance, and she/he might be about to walk out the door. It has always struck me how often the top performers of a company, regardless of size, tend to have a higher burden of work compared to that of their peers. MORE

The median investor looking at your proposal is in her 40s. Her eyes are going, not to mention her brain. I look at a lot of spreadsheets and analytic reports, and way too many are difficult to read and therefore hard to understand. MORE

When prioritizing feature development I like to think of a product in four pieces: Ongoing Engagement, Onboarding, First User Experience and Marketing/Growth. These are actually the steps a user goes through during their lifecycle with your product (listed in reverse). Think of your product less in terms of features and more in terms of the […]. Product Management MORE

A year ago, in mid September 2014, I walked out of a Starbucks in San Francisco with the very first check from an angel investor for Glassbreakers. Though it was only $5,000, it was enough to prove to myself and my co-founder, Lauren Mosenthal, that we could actually fundraise for our startup. MORE

Today, NextView Ventures is excited to release a pillar project in our Growth Guides series: pitch deck templates for raising seed capital. These help address a common question which we frequently receive from entrepreneurs about how to create startup pitch decks for this crucial financial milestone. MORE

Almost every early stage startup that pitches me these days talks about the traction they’ve had with absolutely no marketing whatsoever. “We have five hundred signups and we’ve done no marketing at all.” ” “Our beta list is growing quickly–and we’re not even marketing yet!” ” “Customers are knocking at our door, and that’s with no marketing.” ” […]. Startups MORE

2015

Last year in my What Just Happened post, I said: the social media phase of the Internet ended. I think we can go further than that now and say that sometime in the past year or two the consumer internet/social/mobile gold rush ended.

Digital marketing has gone under some major makeovers over the last few years. From something that was associated only with eCommerce platforms to becoming an increasingly important medium for creating a brand name across industries.

Visit a startup’s website, and you’ll eventually drift towards a few standard links, from About to Team to Contact. But among those options, appearing on almost every site, is one link that simply doesn’t belong with the rest: “Blog.”

Round 10 of the Framework Benchmarks project is now available! It has been a little less than a year since the previous round and in that time, approximately 133 contributors have made 2,835 git commits.

At some point in your startup’s existence you’ll need to focus a lot of attention on your product’s onboarding experience. Don’t worry about this right away. At the start just make sure people can sign up and go get some early adopters by any means necessary.

With all the news about hundred million dollar rounds and billion dollar valuations, it can be hard not to look at the world of entrepreneurship and angel investing as a thrilling ride that only has one stop: success.

Note: This post also published at NextView’s blog for seed stage companies The View From Seed. The startup ecosystem is often full of hyperbole, which is perfectly understandable when you think about it.

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With all the news about hundred million dollar rounds and billion dollar valuations, it can be hard not to look at the world of entrepreneurship and angel investing as a thrilling ride that only has one stop: success.

Note: This post also published at NextView’s blog for seed stage companies The View From Seed. The startup ecosystem is often full of hyperbole, which is perfectly understandable when you think about it.

Startups focus on speed since they are burning cash every day as they search for product/market fit. But over time code/hardware written/built to validate hypotheses and find early customers can become unwieldy, difficult to maintain and incapable of scaling.

The 2014 numbers for the VC category are out and it was a huge year, almost $50bn in total VC funding. ‘ But look at the numbers for “deals” vs the numbers for “dollars” In 2014, there were 4,356 deals vs 4,193 deals in 2013, an increase of 3.8% year over year.

note: In 2013, Rob Go published a flowchart articulating his VC decision making process. Below, we’ve updated that graphic with new information in order to stay current and provide more context and transparency around each node.

Creating a brand presence on all major social platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+ and LinkedIn has become a must for businesses irrespective of their size. But does it all end at fancy social profiles or does social media marketing run deeper? I say, the latter.

Almost every early stage startup that pitches me these days talks about the traction they’ve had with absolutely no marketing whatsoever. “We have five hundred signups and we’ve done no marketing at all.” ” “Our beta list is growing quickly–and we’re not even marketing yet!” ” “Customers are knocking at our door, and that’s with no marketing.” ” […]. Startups

The median investor looking at your proposal is in her 40s. Her eyes are going, not to mention her brain. I look at a lot of spreadsheets and analytic reports, and way too many are difficult to read and therefore hard to understand.

I am always surprised when critics complain that the Lean Startup’s Build, Measure, Learn approach is nothing more than “throwing incomplete products out of the building to see if they work.”. Unfortunately the Build, Measure, Learn diagram is the cause of that confusion.

A popular approach for aspiring entrepreneurs these days seems to be to corner anyone who will listen, with a pitch on their current “million dollar idea.” The initial monologue usually ends with the question “How much money do you think this is worth?”

This is one of my favorite lines to use to explain the business life I live. When asked what it’s like to be a partner in a VC firm, be on a bunch of boards, and have a continuous stream of random interaction come my way, I like to level set my reality. It’s simple.

Ellie Mirman was the first marketer hired by the CMO of HubSpot, the Boston-based marketing software startup that IPOed in 2014. Below, she shares lessons learned from the earliest days of marketing the company and how this has translated to her second startup role as VP of Marketing at Toast.

When prioritizing feature development I like to think of a product in four pieces: Ongoing Engagement, Onboarding, First User Experience and Marketing/Growth. These are actually the steps a user goes through during their lifecycle with your product (listed in reverse). Think of your product less in terms of features and more in terms of the […]. Product Management

A year ago, in mid September 2014, I walked out of a Starbucks in San Francisco with the very first check from an angel investor for Glassbreakers. Though it was only $5,000, it was enough to prove to myself and my co-founder, Lauren Mosenthal, that we could actually fundraise for our startup.

You might be punishing your best player's performance, and she/he might be about to walk out the door. It has always struck me how often the top performers of a company, regardless of size, tend to have a higher burden of work compared to that of their peers.

For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. This is the mysterious and dreaded due diligence process, which can kill the whole deal.

Last week I saw this tweet from Dan Primack who covers the VC sector for Fortune: At VC breakfast (90 attendees), I asked how many would invest in Bitcoin startup (not general blockchain). Zero hands. FortuneTech. — Dan Primack (@danprimack) July 14, 2015.

Today, NextView Ventures is excited to release a pillar project in our Growth Guides series: pitch deck templates for raising seed capital. These help address a common question which we frequently receive from entrepreneurs about how to create startup pitch decks for this crucial financial milestone.